Abstract
This work relates to an experimental study concerning the elaboration of the composite material TiO
2
/Gd
2
O
3
:Fe (
TiO–Gd:Fe
) from powders of Gd
2
O
3
and TiO
2
via a ball milling process with different annealing temperatures. The micro-structural and morphological characterizations of the ground Gd
2
O
3
−TiO
2
mixture as well as the measurements of the optical properties were studied by X-ray diffraction (
XRD
), scanning electron microscopy (
SEM
), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (
FTIR
) and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The X-ray results of the
TiO–Gd:Fe
composites reveal the presence of the TiO
2
anatase phase in addition to the Gd
2
O
3
phase. The direct band-gap of
TiO–Gd:Fe
sample is 3.22 eV for the 350 °C composite and 3.45 eV for the 600 °C composites. The results of
FTIR
spectroscopy confirm the presence of the TiO
2
phase. The results of the photocatalytic tests of the composites show the (
C
−
C
0
)/
C
0
ratio goes from 0.05 to 0.71 when the annealing temperature goes from 350 to 600 °C.